ne
of the most striking features of George W. Bushs presidency has been
his proclivity to use soaring, idealistic rhetoric that is totally at
odds with reality, a tendency that was on display again in his address
to the United Nations General Assembly.

Bush framed his Sept. 19 speech in the context of
the U.N.s 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The words of the
Universal Declaration are as true today as they were when they were
written, Bush declared.

But its hard to believe that Bush had the faintest idea
what principles he was embracing  or perhaps he has grown so self-confident in
never being challenged on his hypocrisies that he believes he can say anything
he wants, no matter how false or deceptive.

Among the 30 rights proclaimed in the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights are these:

--Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of
person.

--No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

--Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a
person before the law.

--No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention
or exile.

--Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and
public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of
his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

-- Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to
be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at
which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defense.

--No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with
his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honor and
reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such
interference or attacks.

--Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and
expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference
and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and
regardless of frontiers.

--Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as
implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or
to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms
set forth herein.

Though Bush is arguably in violation of many if not all the
above-cited human rights tenets, he unblushingly cites the Universal Declaration
as the foundation for his international policies, from the invasion of Iraq to
his handling of the war on terror.

Even as Bush criticizes the U.S. Supreme Court for stopping
his planned kangaroo courts for terror suspects and as he battles members of
Congress over his desire for harsh interrogation of detainees, he invokes
principles that bar exactly what he seeks to do.

How does subjecting detainees to simulated drowning by
waterboarding not violate the prohibition on torture? How does stripping
suspects naked and soaking them with cold water in frigid rooms not go against
the ban on cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment?

How does imprisoning an estimated 14,000 people without
trial or even charges  and arranging extraordinary renditions of others to
countries that torture  fit with the U.N. principle barring arbitrary arrest,
detention or exile?

What about the U.N. mandate that a suspect must get a
public trial before an independent tribunal and receive all the guarantees
necessary for his defense? Instead, Bush wants U.S.-run military tribunals to
convict and even execute defendants based on secret evidence that can be
withheld from both the public and the defendants.

Bush also insists that his plenary  or unlimited 
powers as Commander in Chief allow him to tap telephones and spy on Americans
and non-Americans without obtaining any form of court warrant. Yet, the
Universal Declaration objects to arbitrary interference with [a persons]
privacy, family, home or correspondence.

Bushs hostility toward dissent  even declaring some
thinking unacceptable, as he did at a press conference on Sept. 15  and the
eagerness of his supporters to smear anyone who opposes the President also dont
match with the principle that human rights include the freedom to hold
opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information.

So, why would Bush invoke the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights when he is flouting many of its core principles?

There would seem to be two possible explanations for Bushs
chutzpah: either hes just reading a script without regard to the words
or hes confident that he can speak the opposite of the truth knowing that few
people of consequence will call him on it.

Either way, Bushs cavalier attitude in hailing human
rights while simultaneously trashing human rights represents another classic
case of Bushs hubris, which is becoming the defining characteristic of
his presidency.

Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra
stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book, Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from
Watergate to Iraq, can be ordered at
secrecyandprivilege.com. It's also available at
Amazon.com, as is his 1999 book, Lost History: Contras, Cocaine,
the Press & 'Project Truth.'